John L. Culhane, Jr.

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In a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the FTC alleges that a company that distributes a mobile banking application (App) and its founder who is the company’s sole officer have engaged in deceptive practices in violation of Section 5 of the FTC by making misrepresentations regarding consumers’…

The FTC recently published a blog post about a warning letter it sent to TAPD, Inc., which does business as Frank Financial Aid, warning the company that advertising and marketing, including on its website, may be misleading consumers about pandemic-related relief in the form of grants available to postsecondary students and a cash advance product…

The CFPB announced that it has entered into a settlement with Afni, Inc. to address its alleged FCRA violations in furnishing consumer information to consumer reporting agencies (CRAs).  Afni is a debt collector specializing in the collection of debts on behalf of telecommunications companies.  The consent order imposes a $500,000 civil money penalty.

The FCRA/Regulation…

The Fed, FDIC, and OCC have issued a “Statement on Reference Rates for Loans” that addresses replacement rates for the London Inter-Bank Offered Rate (LIBOR).  LIBOR, which many creditors currently use as the index for calculating the interest rate on credit cards and other variable-rate consumer credit products, is expected to be discontinued…

The CFPB filed an amicus brief in Hopkins v. Collecto, Inc., an appeal before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, in support of the debt collector’s position that it did not violate the FDCPA by sending the plaintiff a letter that included an itemization of the plaintiff’s debt that indicated “$0.00”…

A Maine federal district court ruled that that two 2019 amendments to Maine’s credit reporting law are preempted by the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act and granted the motion for judgment filed by the plaintiff, the Consumer Data Industry Association (CDIA).

One of the amendments prohibited a consumer reporting agency (CRA) from reporting medical debt…

The CFPB  has taken a significant step towards issuing regulations to implement Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act by releasing an outline of the proposals it is considering in preparation for convening a small business review panel (Panel).  Section 1071 amended the ECOA to require financial institutions to collect and report certain data in connection…

The CFPB has released the Summer 2020 edition of its Supervisory Highlights.  The report discusses the Bureau’s examinations in the areas of consumer reporting, debt collection, deposits, fair lending, mortgage servicing, and payday lending that were completed between September 2019 and December 2019.

Key findings are described below.

Consumer reporting.  CFPB examiners found:…